Gambit: August 10, 2021

August 10-16 2021 Volume 42 Number 33

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BOOKING 2022 EVENTS!

CONTENTS

AUGUST 10 — 16, 2021 VOLUME 42 || NUMBER 32

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Gambit (ISSN 1089-3520) is published weekly by Capital City Press, LLC, 840 St. Charles Ave., New Orleans, LA 70130. (504) 4865900. We cannot be held responsible for the return of unsolicited manuscripts even if accompanied by a SASE. All material published in Gambit is copyrighted: Copyright 2021 Capital City Press, LLC. All rights reserved.

Calling card

Tinder Live IT’S UNIVERSALLY KNOWN THAT DATING APPS, while sometimes producing happily-ever-afters, also bring out some of the most cringeworthy characters lookin’ to get laid.

New York-based comedian Lane Moore, who rose to fame on Twitter for her prolific, witty observations, finds the humor in it. With her show “Tinder Live,” she interacts with Tinder matches in real time, projecting profiles on a giant screen and interacting with panelists and audiences to help dissect them and figure out what to say. Moore will bring her show to The Howlin’ Wolf at 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 14. Tickets start at $20 at thehowlinwolf.com.

Bo Dollis Jr. claims his own name on new Wild Magnolias album

BY JAKE CLAPP THIS IS BO DOLLIS JR. BIG CHIEF OF THE WILD MAGNOLIAS Mardi Gras Indian

tribe; singer and musician; family man; community member; son of the late, venerated Big Chief Bo Dollis Sr. It all comes together with purpose on “My Name is Bo.” Bo Dollis Jr. and the Wild Magnolias released “My Name is Bo” last weekend. It’s the Black Masking Indian tribe’s first album since 2013’s “New Kind of Funk,” which carried its own importance as Bo Dollis Jr.’s first album fronting the Wild Magnolias. His father, who died in 2015, provided backing vocals for that record.

While “New Kind of Funk” could be seen as a transition from father to son, on “My Name is Bo” the son forges his own path forward while honoring his father’s legacy.

“My name is Bo, too. I’m not trying to take [my father’s] name. I’m going to carry his name, but I’m not going to try and fill his shoes. I’m gonna fill my own shoes and carry the name on,” Dollis told Gambit.

“My Name is Bo” is close to a double album. One half of the record is filled with charismatic Mardi Gras Indian funk that weaves in heavy influences from all corners of New Orleans: rolling rhythm and blues, second line rhythms, hip-hop, reggae, even zydeco.

The second half of the album is a set of traditional-style recordings — including “Shallow Water” and “Indians Here They Come” — that could have been made by the Wild Magnolias on Mardi Gras Day, if the pandemic hadn’t kept the tribe from stepping out earlier this year. The cover itself is split in two — Dollis is wearing casual clothing, the kind he wears on stage, on one side and a bright white suit with gold and sky-blue beadwork on the mirrored opposite.

“I wanted all aspects of New Orleans.

I can’t do one without the other,” Dollis says. “I came from Mardi Gras Indians, so I couldn’t leave that out. And I’ve never done it before, a straight percussion album. This was something different for me.”

The electric side of “My Name is Bo” is stacked with a breathless list of New Orleans icons. The credits include

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Clarinetist Tim Laughlin

guitarist June Yamagishi, who has played with the Wild Magnolias since the mid-’90s. Cyril Neville produced the record, plays percussion and adds backing vocals. Brothers Rickey and Norman Caesar play drums and keys throughout. And Ivan Neville, Leo Nocentelli, NEA Jazz Master Big Chief Donald Harrison Jr., Big Sam Williams, Rockin’ Dopsie Jr. and Anthony Dopsie are all featured on the record.

Nocentelli, Yamagishi, Rockin’ Dopsie and other performers will join Dollis and the Wild Magnolias on Saturday, Aug. 14, for an album release show at Tiptina’s.

“My Name is Bo” smoothly incorporates a range of styles. The album opens with the stomping title-track, with Dollis asserting “My name is Bo / That’s right, Bo Dollis / If you don’t know, you best ask somebody.” On the track “If It Wasn’t for You,” Dollis gives a spoken-word, earnest tribute to his father over a slow funk groove, accented by Big Sam Williams’ trombone. The Dopsie brothers’ zydeco accordion and rub board are front and center on “Have A Good Time,” a feelgood party song about the city — later on the album, “NOLA Thang” also fires up the hometown pride.

“When you go on Bourbon Street or you go into the clubs — Howlin’ Wolf,

P H OTO P R OV I D E D B Y CHRISTINE DUMOUCHEL

Bo Dollis Jr. and the Wild Magnolias recently released ‘My Name is Bo.’

Maple Leaf, wherever — you don’t know what you might run into,” Dollis says. “New Orleans is zydeco, New Orleans is blues, second line, you might have a reggae band. That’s what I wanted.”

Cyril Neville pushed Dollis out of his element, the singer adds, “from singing strictly funk songs or strictly Mardi Gras songs and helped me find what I was looking for.”

Dollis is looking toward the future of the Wild Magnolias. His daughters have been masking since they were born and have started sewing.

And he’s taking a page from his father — who would take Bo Jr. into recording sessions and interviews at WWOZ — by bringing his kids to gigs and into the studio. His youngest daughter appears on the track “What About Us.” “This album, my main focus is to go further than where my dad stopped at,” Dollis says. “He brought Indians to a whole other level in his era. This era here, I’m trying to bring Indians to another level, too, and keep it going.”

Tim Laughlin CLARINETIST TIM LAUGHLIN LEADS A CONCERT TRIBUTE to New Orleans clarinetists Johnny Dodds, Pete Fountain, George Lewis, Irving Fazola, Louis Cottrell Jr., Eddie Miller and others. He’s backed by Nahum Zdybel and Taylor Kent. Attendees can bring their own alcohol. The show is at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 15, at the Beauregard-Keyes House.

Tickets are $35 at bkhouse.org.

Fermin Ceballos THE ROOTS OF MUSIC CONCERT SERIES highlighting Caribbean sounds and connections continues with Fermin Ceballos, who hails from the Dominican Republic. With his seven-piece band, Ceballos mixes salsa, merengue and bachata rhythms.

There are shows at 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 14, at Paradigm Gardens, and food is available from Karibu Kitchen. Visit paradigmgardensnola.com for tickets.

Big Easy Shakedown THE SHAKEDOWN IS DRIVEN BY AN AUTO SHOW WITH PRE-1970 HOT RODS, custom cars and choppers.

There also is live music, DJs and burlesque performances by Simone Del PAGE 24

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V I E W S

If a Jeff Landry lawsuit fails in the forest and no one sees it, does he even have a law degree?

# The Count

Thumbs Up/ Thumbs Down

10,000

Fatima Shaik has received

The number of previously charged summonses or convictions for simple possession of cannabis that would be pardoned under legislation approved Thursday by the City Council.

the 22nd annual Louisiana Writer Award, recognizing the New Orleans-born writer’s body of work and her “outstanding contributions to Louisiana’s literary and intellectual life,” the award says. The Louisiana Writer Award is given by the Louisiana Center for the Book in the State Library of Louisiana. Earlier this year, Shaik released “Economy Hall: The Hidden History of a Free Black Brotherhood.”

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The Broadside.

Amistad Research Center, in partnership with the Rivers Institute of Contemporary Art and Thought, has received a $500,000 award from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Amistad and the Rivers Institute will use the award to support five international artists in their research residencies at the center, beginning this month and ending in December 2023. The artists will use the center’s collections of material history to develop new works.

Attorney General Jeff Landry cares so little about Louisianans he is advising his office on how to use religion to skirt mask mandates and possible vaccine requirements in K-12 schools, the Louisiana Illuminator reported. In an email Landry told staff to use religious or philosophical objections to fight mask mandates and any future vaccine requirement, just hours before Gov. John Bel Edwards announced a new statewide mask mandate.

FUTURE OF OUTDOOR MUSIC VENUES IN JEOPARDY THANKS TO CITY PERMITTING MESS IN MID-JULY, THE ZONY MASH BEER PROJECT — a brewery that started regularly hosting live music during the coronavirus pandemic — announced it was canceling the remainder of its July music schedule, citing “ongoing issues with the City of New Orleans for our outdoor live music events.”

The day after the announcement, The Broadside — an outdoor event venue established last fall next to The Broad Theater — received an email from the city’s Department of Safety and Permits saying it was also running afoul of the permit allowing it to host outdoor shows.

“The day after Zony got their letter from the city, the next day we got ours that basically said you’re out of compliance,” Broadside owner Brian Knighten told The Lens.

The Broadside voluntarily closed down less than a week later, Knighten said, so he could do some planned renovations before an anticipated reopening in September.

“I said, ‘OK, look, you don’t shut us down, we’ll voluntarily close because we had planned to anyway, and our plan is to open Sept. 2.’

We have gigs on Sept. 2 ready to go. We have almost a full calendar.”

But it isn’t entirely clear whether Knighten will have the permits necessary to reopen at that point, due to the uncertain future of temporary pandemic rules that have allowed outdoor music to thrive over the last year. Those rules allow businesses to apply for an unlimited number of special event permits for concerts, which are normally capped at a maximum 24 days per year.

The city couldn’t provide The Lens with a timeline for when the temporary rules will end. But emails from May obtained by The Lens indicate city officials were considering letting the rules “go out of the window,” although it appears they backed off those plans with the emergence of the Delta variant.

PAGE 8

The measure was sponsored by City Council President Helena Moreno. The bill also “ends the accumulation of fines and fees, and stops the unnecessary prosecution of these minor cannabis,” according to a press release. It would not, however, affect other charges the individual is facing. The bill was passed by a unanimous vote. On Aug. 1, a new state law went into effect decriminalizing possession of cannabis. But that law is not retroactive.

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In October, Knighten took advantage of the new rules to open The Broadside as The Broad Theater struggled through the pandemic and related business restrictions. But The Broadside’s most recent special event permit application has been pending with the city’s Department of Safety and Permits for months. Without it, the venue won’t be able to host live events.

Knighten said he was optimistic he’ll be able to work with the city to solve the problem before September, but the issue has created some uncertainty about what comes next for his business.

“What I would like to do at Broadside is to build a permanent facility — build a real bar, a real bathroom, a garden and keep the live music element as part of that,” he said. “But now all that’s on hold because I don’t want to put any more money into this if they’re not going to give me the permit.”

The long-term legality of the business is even less certain, due to a ban on regular outdoor live entertainment everywhere in the city except in the French Quarter.

The ban went into effect in 2019 not due to a new law but because the Department of Safety and Permits quietly decided to change its interpretation of the city’s zoning laws.

The policy change came as a surprise to many in 2019, including some City Council members, who soon ordered the City Planning Commission to study the issue and make policy recommendations. Those recommendations were finalized and approved by the commission in January, setting up a framework that would likely allow The Broadside and other outdoor venues to operate long term.

“They aren’t working for musicians, they’re not working for neighbors, they’re not working for venue owners, they’re not understandable, they’re not clear,” CPC Executive Director Robert Rivers said at the January commission meeting.

But before the recommendations can become law, they need approval from the City Council. Six months later, the council still hasn’t taken a vote.

The Music and Culture Coalition of New Orleans, or MaCCNO, had been ringing the alarm bells on the council’s inaction before the Zony Mash announcement came out.

City Chief Zoning Official Ashley Becnel confirmed that without council action, outdoor venues like The Broadside will have to stop operating once Mayor LaToya

Cantrell’s coronavirus emergency declaration comes to a close.

“That’s always been where our concern has been,” MaCCNO executive director Ethan Ellestad told The Lens. “When these [temporary rules] sunset, and it looks like there are plans to sunset them, then what’s next?”

NO CITY COUNCIL ACTION According to Councilman Jay Banks, who helped initiated the CPC study, the council hasn’t moved forward with the recommendations at the request of the Cantrell administration.

According to Banks, the administration wants to tackle the city’s noise ordinance before making zoning changes.

“The administration asked us to stand down so that we could have a comprehensive overhaul of the noise ordinance to work in concert with this outdoor live entertainment piece,” Banks said.

The Mayor’s Office did not respond to questions from The Lens about Banks’ comments.

New Orleans’ noise ordinance — which is not part of the city’s zoning laws — places limits on where and when loud or amplified noise is allowed. It was created decades ago and has been a consistent thorn in the side of the city, residents and businesses.

According to the CPC report, the law is so flawed the city has stopped enforcing it for now. For businesses like The Broadside, it is instead using the permitting process, enabled by the Safety and Permits zoning interpretation, to halt outdoor concerts.

‘IT’S SOMETHING WE DON’T HAVE A SPECIFIC COPY OF’ The CZO requires businesses to close their windows and doors when hosting live performances.

The Department of Safety and Permits ruled in 2019 that since there are no windows and doors outside, they cannot be closed, and therefore all outdoor music violates the closed windows and doors policy.

In a 2019 report, CPC staff said the law was “intended to apply only to interior performances” when the CZO was adopted in 2015. The commission noted the new interpretation also makes obsolete other sections of the CZO intended to govern outdoor live entertainment.

Additionally, the city has been unable to point to exactly when or how that interpretation changed.

Cantrell spokeswoman LaTonya Norton told The Lens in a recent email that the interpretations on

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the city’s website represent the more “formal interpretations.”

“We also issue many informal interpretations and decisions through zoning verifications, email responses, and in meetings. We have not done a formal zoning interpretation on this subject.”

Despite the informality of the interpretation and city planners’ opinion, that’s how the CZO has been interpreted ever since with respect to outdoor live music. Now, the only way to host live outdoor entertainment outside the French Quarter is with a special event permit. Under normal rules, businesses can get a maximum of eight special event permits a year, each of which are valid for three days, for a total of just 24 days a year.

Businesses that have long hosted outdoor live music could be grandfathered in and avoid the new ban. But according to an internal email from April obtained

by The Lens, Becnel is only aware of one such business — Bacchanal Wine in the Bywater.

During the pandemic, Cantrell suspended the yearly limitations on the number of special event permits to encourage outdoor activities to combat the spread of the virus. Those temporary rules have allowed some businesses to make live outdoor entertainment a core part of their business.

Under the temporary rules, businesses can apply for a special event permit that’s valid for an

initial 10-day period and which can be extended for up to six months.

The Broadside had an initial sixmonth permit starting in July 2020.

In January, Knighten applied for a renewal and additional six-month permit. According to the city’s online permit database, the application is still pending. Knighten said he never heard if his application was approved or denied after he submitted it. He said he was recently told by a Safety and Permits employee they had no record of the permit.

Even if the application had gone through quickly, the event permit would have expired by the time Knighten wants to reopen in September. He’s planning on reapplying for a new six-month permit and has a hearing with the CPC Aug. 10 to discuss a zoning change that would allow the property to be designated an “outdoor amusement facility.”

But even if the change is approved, the current Safety and Permits interpretation would still prevent Broadside from hosting live events in the absence of a special event permit.

It’s unclear how long the temporary special event permit rules will stay in place. In May, emails between Becnel and Health Department Director Dr. Jennifer Avegno indicated the city was preparing to wind the program down.

— Michael Isaac Stein / The Lens

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COMMENTARY

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It’s time for a proof of vaccination requirement in New Orleans LAST WEEK, MAYOR LATOYA CANTRELL took the prudent step

of implementing a citywide mask mandate. With the COVID-19 Delta variant running wild in the city and across the country, it was clearly the right first step toward getting the pandemic back under control in New Orleans.

But it was just that: a first step.

We are in the midst of the largest surge in Covid cases America has seen so far. Hospital beds once again are in short supply, non-emergency surgeries are being canceled, and health care professionals are pushed to the breaking point.

For those reasons and more, we urge Cantrell to take two additional steps — now. First, she should clearly tell future visitors to New Orleans: “Get vaccinated, or stay home.”

Tourists are a key part of our economy and should feel welcome in New Orleans, but they can and should be responsible guests. The hospitality industry leaders should step up and help the mayor get the word out and enforce this rule.

Second, the city must implement a proof-of-vaccination requirement for bars, restaurants, music venues, hotels and large gatherings — including outdoor events. The state’s ID app, LA Wallet, already includes the option of storing vaccination cards, and several states and private companies have similar apps readily available to everyone — so this new requirement won’t be overly burdensome.

Hotels, bed-and-breakfasts and short-term rentals must help enforce this requirement if we hope to control the virus’ spread. Such a rule would protect hospitality workers, managers and visitors alike.

Besides, it’s unfair for the city to expect locals to mask up and show proof of vaccinations while giving visitors a pass.

This isn’t uncharted waters. A number of nations have implemented these sorts of rules for visitors, as has at least one hotel in Provincetown, Massachusetts, after an outbreak in that city. This isn’t government intrusion; it’s basic public safety. For decades, parents have had to provide proof of their children’s vaccinations to enroll them in school for the same reason.

It doesn’t burden kids, and it won’t unduly burden adult visitors.

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Businesses should be forced to set public health policy.

The stakes are high: If New Orleans wants to safely host the string of festivals planned for October, getting masks and proof-of-vaccination rules on the books now will give us our best chance of bringing infection rates back down to where they were when the city re-opened this spring.

In the long run, that will be good for local businesses — especially the hospitality industry.

Festival promoters will also have plenty of time to adjust entrance rules — and provide ticket holders too selfish to get vaccinated an opportunity to get refunds. Smaller festivals around the country, such as the Rochester Fringe Festival in Western New York, are already implementing vaccine rules. We’re confident our city’s top-notch promoters can do it on a larger scale. Already some notable local musicians, venues and restaurants are doing it, but that’s no substitute for an enforceable citywide mandate.

After a year and a half of barely scraping by, workers’ potential windfall from an October festival season is worth hosting it safely. To make that happen, Cantrell once again must take the lead.

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‘Backrooms and Bayous’ is a breezy, insightful political memoir POLITICIANS ARE NOT GIVEN TO SOUL SEARCHING . The best political

aides reflect often on themselves and their bosses — but mostly in private. That’s why I love Bob Mann’s new book, “Backrooms and Bayous: My Life in Louisiana Politics.” Mann has seen Louisiana and Washington politics up close as both a journalist and a top aide to two U.S. senators and one governor.

Anyone familiar with Mann’s writing knows he pulls no punches, not even when writing about politicians he admires. He is equally candid when reflecting on his own career.

Near the end of the book, he looks back and confesses, “I had not always behaved admirably. I’d cut corners. I hurt people. Several times, I had let my temper or my desire to win get the best of me.”

Those words do not describe the Bob Mann I’ve known for the past four decades. He’s one of the most honorable people I’ve encountered in almost 50 years of covering politics. His admission shows that he holds himself to the same high standards to which we should hold our elected officials.

“Backrooms and Bayous” is neither a kiss-and-tell nor an apologia. Rather, it’s a political memoir packed with hard-earned lessons and astute observations about America’s most interesting and, to the uninitiated, unnavigable political swamps — Louisiana and Washington. Mann calls it “a cautionary tale for young people interested in a career in government.”

Mann admits he began his media career as a “passionate Republican” who gave little thought to the ongoing fight for civil rights. His views moderated steadily over the years, and he switched parties after moving to Washington to work as press secretary to U.S. Sen. Russell Long.

He writes that Long, who was known to be as quirky as he was powerful, “treated me and others who worked for him with complete respect. Sometimes, I went overboard with my advice. When that happened, he had a kind way of putting me in my place.” Mann later became press aide to Louisiana’s U.S. Sen. John Breaux, whom Mann describes as “remarkably self-effacing.”

In 1990, Mann served as press secretary to Louisiana’s U.S. Sen. J. Bennett Johnston’s reelection campaign against neo-Nazi David Duke.

P R OV I D E D P H OTO

Robert Mann’s new book.

“Nothing I’ve done in politics before or since has given me more satisfaction than helping defeat David Duke,” he writes.

Mann and his last elected boss, Gov. Kathleen Blanco, did not always see eye-to-eye, but he admired her strength and character enormously.

He writes of Blanco, “She was not the most inspiring speaker … [but] this was not a woman who would abandon a commitment or shrink from a challenge.”

Mann left politics and began teaching political communication at LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communications in 2006. After publishing eight books on history and politics, he decided to pen a memoir. In “Backrooms and Bayous,” he brings a journalist’s unsparing eye and a southerner’s knack for storytelling to this breezy yet insightful tale.

I highly recommend it for any serious student of Louisiana politics as well as anyone merely curious about Louisiana’s storied political history over the past 75 years.

Covid restrictions allowing, Bob Mann will appear at area bookstores to sign copies of “Backrooms and Bayous” starting Aug. 21 at the Metairie Barnes & Noble, 3721 Veterans Blvd., 11a.m.-2 p.m. He also will sell and sign books remotely via backrooms-and-bayous.square.site.

13

BLAKE PONTCHARTRAIN™ Hey Blake, News stories about Jefferson Parish’s plans for a “Tardi Gras” parade in September mentioned it rolling on Metairie Road. I remember going to Mardi Gras parades there as a kid. When was the route changed to Veterans Boulevard?

Dear reader,

On Feb. 8, 1958, the all-female Krewe of Helios became the first Carnival parade to roll down Metairie Road. According to The Times-Picayune, that Saturday afternoon 10 floats rolled from Derbigny Street (near St. Christopher School) to Severn Avenue, then down Metairie Road before ending at Frisco Avenue.

Eight days later, the all-male Krewe of Zeus staged a 12-float parade on a similar route, becoming Metairie’s first night parade. It was followed by a ball at Metairie (now Pontiff) Playground.

According to Mardi Gras Guide publisher Arthur Hardy, other krewes of the 1960s and ‘70s rolled on routes that included Metairie Road, Bonnabel Boulevard and Veterans Memorial Boulevard.

In 1979, Jefferson Parish eliminated Metairie Road from the parade route. The narrowness of the roadway, combined with some neighbors’ complaints about the

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The 1974 queen of the Krewe of Helios leads her organization’s parade through Metairie.

size of parade crowds, led to the change. “Sheriff Alwynn J. Cronvich said because there are no nearby parallel roadways for emergency vehicles or parade watchers’ cars, continuing to hold parades on Metairie Road just doesn’t make sense,” reported The States-Item.

Instead, the parish created a route which begins near Clearview Shopping Center and ends at Veterans and Martin Behrman Avenue. In 2019, the parish reversed the route for some parades, starting at Bonnabel and ending near Clearview for Family Gras.

Even after Carnival parades left Metairie Road, the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, which debuted in 1971, continued to roll there each March.

In 2007, the Krewe of Zeus was given permission to stage a Twelfth Night parade on Metairie Road for its 50th anniversary.

BLAKEVIEW THIS WEEK MARKS A MILESTONE FOR THE SUPERDOME : 50 years ago, crews

drove the first construction pilings for the building that reinvented the city’s skyline and image.

In 1966, Louisiana voters approved a constitutional amendment creating the Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District (LSED) to oversee the project.

Voters also approved a 4 percent tax on hotel and motel rooms to help pay for it. Initial construction estimates were $35 million, but the figure ballooned to $165 million.

Designed by architect Nathaniel “Buster” Curtis Jr., construction on the building began on Aug. 11, 1971, the day the LSED sold $113 million worth of construction bonds. That day, a brass band led a parade from City Hall to the construction site. “(Gov. John) McKeithen, (Mayor Moon) Landrieu and (Superdome promoter Dave) Dixon mounted the cab of a pile driver … to drive the first 79 1/2-foot pre-stressed concrete construction pile,” The Times-Picayune reported.

Construction took four years, with dedication ceremonies held on Aug. 3, 1975. The New Orleans Saints played their first preseason game there six days later and their first regular season home game on Sept. 28, 1975 – losing both.

The Dome hosted its first Sugar Bowl the following December, its first Super Bowl in 1978 and its first Final Four in 1982. It welcomed Pope John Paul II in 1987, the Republican National Convention in 1988 and the first Essence Music Festival in 1995. It provided shelter for more than 30,000 people during Hurricane Katrina and closed the next 13 months for repairs.

Renamed the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in a 2011 deal with the Saints, last month it was rebranded the Caesars Superdome as part of a 20-year, $138 million agreement.

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Getting a pop-up permitted is a nightmare in New Orleans B Y K AY L E E P O C H E Ed. Note: An extended version of this story appears online.

ERIC ROTHSCHILD JUST WANTED TO CREATE

a space for other aspiring chefs to experiment, cook delicious food and feed people in his community.

He had found a spot to open New Orleans Trap Kitchen, a “commissary kitchen” space in the Bywater. Commissary kitchens give food businesses without brick-and-mortar spaces, like pop-ups and catering companies, a physical space to prepare and cook food to sell to customers. In July 2019, Rothschild set about getting the kitchen set up and permitted. He knew navigating city bureaucracies is never easy. But he was unprepared for the nightmare that awaited him.

His business didn’t fit neatly into the mold of a traditional restaurant. And when he searched the city’s website, he couldn’t find exactly what type of permits he’d need or what he needed to do to get them. So Roth-

schild headed down to City Hall to see if he could get help in person.

“The first flag that kind of came up was that our address wasn’t in the city’s database, even though there had been previous food-related businesses in the space that we occupy,” he says. While the previous business came up in the city’s system, the address wouldn’t.

Then came a trip to the zoning inspector’s office, where he still couldn’t get a clear answer on what sort of permit he needed.

“They didn’t answer any questions there,” Rothschild says. “They just said, ‘Fill out everything, whatever you can.’ ” Eventually, he found other commissary kitchens who were registered as caterers with the city. But he spent another month trying to verify with the city that he should do the same.

“That was a month of non-returned phone calls basically, leaving messages, trying to find somebody to email, but there really weren’t any resources available or listed

online” at the city’s One Stop permitting website, Rothschild says.

Rothschild’s experience isn’t unique. All over New Orleans, pop-up operators, food truck hopefuls and others are pulling their hair out in frustration. Often, these are smaller and newer businesses who can’t afford to hire outside experts to guide them through the process — which involves numerous steps and approval from both state and parish agencies.

“If you’re a city organization and you want to grow economic development, it would be nice to have kind of a clear pathway because that’s just adding more to the plate to the business person that’s trying to get their business going,” Rothschild told Gambit.

Several food business owners across the city report having trouble determining exactly what permits they need in order to open legally and what steps they should take to get them.

The process can be even more challenging for people trying to open non-restau-

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y r o t a l u g e R

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16 Regulatory

WHACK —A—

MOLE

P H OTO B Y I A N M C N U LT Y / T H E T I M E S - P I C AY U N E

Bub’s Burgers started out as a pop-up before opening its own restaurant in a small space attached to Banks Street Bar.

rant food businesses like commissary kitchens, food trucks or pop-ups, especially if the city doesn’t have permits or guidelines specifically designed for their type of business.

Elisa Munoz, executive director of the New Orleans Food Policy Action Council (FPAC), says permitting rules haven’t kept up with New Orleans’ ever-changing food scene. But she says the economic recovery of the city from the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions depends, in part, on creating a system that works for small businesses.

That’s why FPAC, a nonprofit that advocates for improvements to the city’s food system, is working with the city to update the permitting process, especially as New Orleans deals with the ongoing pandemic.

“The confusing and costly permitting issue is really getting in the way of us recovering our small food businesses,” Munoz says. “We have to get this figured out.”

Issues with the permitting process are nothing new. In 2013, then-Mayor Mitch Landrieu opened the city’s One Stop Shop on the seventh floor of City Hall, in hopes of streamlining the permitting process by getting the City Planning Commission, Historic District Landmarks Commission, Safety and Permits Department and Vieux Carre Commission all on one floor. It was an office mayors had talked about for decades prior to its opening, and it came with the launch of a city’s website aimed at making the process clearer for business owners.

But Emma Walker, an accountant who helps business owners with permitting and licensing, says there’s still a long way to go in making the process efficient and accessible.

“One Stop seems on the surface like it has all the answers and things are laid out really well and if you search for things, you can find them,” Walker says. “But then once you dig into it, it’s not.”

When Alfredo Manzanares was preparing to start his pop-up Burger Nerds this spring, he found this to be the case. “I went to the One Stop, but even there it’s not really clear what all is required,” he says. “It’s not really laid out for you to just kind of pick it up and go. I definitely felt like there were a few run-arounds and dead ends.”

Part of the problem is that New Orleans’ food scene has changed quite a bit since 2013, especially facing a pandemic and related restrictions that turned the industry on its head.

“Food businesses go through trends,” Munoz

says. “There was a time where there was, and there still are, lots of food trucks, and now it just seems like we’re having a lot of pop-ups.”

Munoz says the change is partly a result of the pandemic causing lots of people in the city’s restaurant industry to lose their jobs, with some restaurants either pausing their operations or closing their doors for good. That left many experienced food workers looking for their next step.

“We have a lot of people who are great chefs and cooks that are now trying to start their own small businesses,” she says. “There’s so much innovation, and the problem is that the permit process has not been able to keep up with that, which is understandable. It changes all the time.”

For someone wanting to test the waters and see how their business might do, a pop-up can be a logical place to start. It’s cheaper than buying a food truck — and less of a commitment.

But despite the increasing prevalence of food pop-ups in the city everywhere from bars to breweries to markets, the city doesn’t have a permit specific to them, Munoz says, nor one for commissary kitchens like Rothschild’s.

“Because there’s so many different types of food businesses, the One Stop Shop and the permitting and licensing don’t apply to many of the food businesses that currently exist,” Munoz says. “We’re having to try to fit them into what exists for licensing, and it can be a little subjective to whomever you’re speaking with at the One Stop Shop, whether they put you as a caterer, or as a food truck or as a pushcart.”

To make sure both business owners and all city officials are on the same page, FPAC recommends the city allow food pop-ups to operate under a general occupational license by registering with either a commissary kitchen, a hosting facility with a licensed kitchen or a food pop-up safety plan. That plan would include a description of the setup, food handling practices and how

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The city’s permitting process for popups can not only be cumbersome to navigate, it can also be cost prohibitive.

According to FPAC, to legally operate a food pop-up in Orleans Parish, you need a $50 yearly general occupational license from the city, a $50 revenue certificate from the Department of Revenue, either a special event promoter permit which can range from $250 to $750 or a $50 yearly special event vendor permit, a $305.25 mobile vending permit and a $37.50 temporary food service establishment permit from the state health department. That’s five permits from three different offices costing between $492.75 and $1,192.75 just to have your first event.

“Having it cost a lot of money for it to be a one-time event that potentially doesn’t pan out, we feel like, is inequitable and really kind of tamping down innovation and growth in a time when New Orleans needs it the most,” Munoz says.

With additional food and equipment costs, many new businesses can’t afford these start-up costs or don’t have the time to spend hours on the phone with different offices, so some in the city end up operating illegally.

“It is such a pain in the ass to even just figure out what’s needed that most people, when a business is small enough, they kind of look at all the paperwork and all the words and are just like, ‘I’m not doing this,’ ” says Walker, the accountant. “People just end up not doing it, which obviously can be a problem if you become big enough that the state or the parish or both takes an interest and realizes ... These things can end up biting you in the ass.”

According to a report by FPAC’s Business Development Working Group,

TAKEOUT and DELIVERY

having businesses operating illegally causes the city to lose tax dollars while also creating the possibility of potential health risks without regular health inspections.

“Due to the prohibitive nature of the number, cost, and requirements of permitting, food pop-ups are forced to operate outside of oversight, resulting in loss of sales tax revenue for the City of New Orleans and unmanaged food safety risks,” the report reads.

And while hiring experts like lawyers, accountants and architects can make handling the permitting process substantially easier, it’s not always an option for smaller businesses, especially emerging pop-ups just trying to dip their toes in the water.

T. Cole Newton, who owns the bars Twelve Mile Limit and The Domino, says getting his bars certified as conditional restaurants to operate during the pandemic with pop-ups would have been “orders of magnitude more difficult” without a lawyer to help.

“It’s a lot of technical definitions, things that can be written in a way that it’s difficult for a layperson to understand the implications of what you’re signing off on sometimes,” Newton says. “More people would engage with it if they didn’t feel so intimidated by the process, or if they were even aware that that is a requirement.”

And even experts can run into issues with the process. Walker says she struggles on a daily basis to get straight answers about the permitting process from the city.

“You can’t get anybody on the phone.

If you talk to somebody, then the next person you talk to is gonna have a whole different list of requirements. It’s like they make it as difficult as possible, and it’s very frustrating for everyone,” she says. “I do this for my job, and I find something new every day.”

Even longtime business owners — who have become seasoned veterans of the permitting process — faced hurdles renewing their permits once the pandemic hit and city offices closed to the public.

Rachel Angulo, owner of La Cocinita, has been navigating the city’s permitting process for almost a decade. She formed the New Orleans Food Truck

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Bub’s Burgers got its start as a pop-up serving at bars and breweries, including this appearance at Miel Brewery and Taproom in 2020.

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sanitation will be maintained, while also following safety requirements by the Louisiana Department of Health and the city’s Fire Department.

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18 said in a statement to Gambit. “We want to end the confusion and make the process simple and straightforward. The city can’t be an obstacle to economic growth.”

Coalition to get the City Council to change several laws regulating food trucks in 2013, including increasing the number of permits the city could give out to food trucks and expanding where they were allowed to operate.

But when it came time to renew her permits annually in January, City Hall was still mostly closed to the public due to the pandemic. An employee told her to drop off her permit renewal application and fee in a box near the entrance. She says the city didn’t hand her so much as a receipt of payment or proof of submission before she left.

About a month later, Angulo says she got an email from the city informing her she needed to contact the Bureau of Revenue because the documents were sent to the office that handles new applications, not renewals.

“I had just put it in the box that they told me to put it in when I was there,” she says. “It’s just one big box. You stapled the check to the envelope.”

Further complicating things for Angulo is that many of the city’s permit applications, including for its food truck permit, can’t be submitted online. Since Angulo’s business is based in both New Orleans and Chicago, sometimes popping into City Hall to submit or check on the status of an application isn’t feasible.

“I always find it easiest just to go and talk to them,” she says. “But logistically, that’s not always an option for me.”

Angulo says she wishes the city would make more of its permit applications available online, as she’s seen other cities do. “It would be much more feasible for many business owners to upload application documents electronically,” she says.

We want to end the confusion and make the process simple and straightforward.

The city can’t be an obstacle to economic growth.”

Owners of food trucks, commissary kitchens and pop-ups alike agree the city should take steps to make the permitting process for smaller, non-restaurant food businesses easier.

A big step the city could take is to add specific and clear permitting policies for commissary kitchens and pop-ups and make them available on the One Stop Shop site to accommodate their growing presence in the city.

Munoz says new policies for food pop-ups should account for the fact that they often occur in several places on a recurring schedule and that some owners can’t afford hundreds of dollars in permitting and licensing

fees. She says that’s one of several recommendations to the city’s permitting process that FPAC has been working on with Council President Helena Moreno’s office.

“We’re working with [the city] to try to figure out how can we make it more cost effective for everyone,” Munoz says, whether that be through a sliding scale program or a fund for low-income small business owners to help pay for permits and licenses.

And though the city’s One Stop Shop website does have a section for food trucks, Angulo of La Cocinita says it could be more thorough in telling business owners exactly what

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Thai D-Jing, like many small food operators, started out as a food truck before recently moving into a formal restaurant in Gretna.

“

— HELENA MORENO

documents are required for various permit and license applications.

“It’s still not very comprehensive,” she says. “One Stop Shop is not really a one stop shop when it comes to food trucks.”

Munoz says FPAC is also working with the city on potentially finding a way to streamline inspections, so that either the city or state can inspect a business, instead of needing both to do so.

Another component of FPAC’s recommendations is improving the city’s food infrastructure. In its “COVID-19 New Orleans Food System Assessment” released Aug. 4, it recommends creating and funding a “City Food Coordinator” that would help connect businesses, community partners and food organizations with one another. It also recommends increasing technical assistance and grantmaking to small businesses so that starting a new business is an option available to all the city’s residents.

Munoz says currently different offices in City Hall are reviewing different parts of FPAC’s recommendations and they’re working together to iron out the details. She says she doesn’t have a date yet from the city on when that step will be finished, but a spokesperson for Moreno said their office has been working on this issue “for quite a while.”

“Now is the time to make things easier for small and local businesses to help them get back on their feet and survive this pandemic,” Moreno

Meanwhile, pop-ups, food trucks and commissary kitchens continue to be a vital part of New Orleans’ food scene.

For Newton, hosting pop-ups at Twelve Mile Limit has not only brought business and fed patrons at his bar, but it’s also where some of the city’s food businesses, like Bakery Bar, have gotten their start.

“We’ve had different partners in the kitchen over the years and some of them have gone on to do other things that are really impressive,” he says. “Places that allow pop-ups become these incubator spaces that allow these microscopically small businesses to really develop a brand, develop an audience, grow and flourish, and then go on, if they want to, to be full-fledged restaurants or expanding their businesses from there.”

“Those initial opportunities can be invaluable,” he adds.

Some local food businesses also work to support the community in times of need. Rothschild says during the pandemic, New Orleans Trap Kitchen was able to put some unemployed chefs back to work cooking for mutual aid groups or unhoused people in the city.

Munoz says changing the permitting process to remove unnecessary hurdles from businesses will help New Orleans through the rest of the pandemic and to rebound from the impacts the related restrictions had on the industry.

“With the pandemic, it just became where we have to get this figured out because small businesses need to shift the businesses that they have and we’ve got to work on recovering the New Orleans economy,” she says.

Rothschild agrees, adding that support for the city’s small, non-traditional food businesses is crucial for the long-term success of New Orleans’ food industry.

“Obviously, there’s fiscal challenges on the city side, too,” Rothschild says. “But if you really want to have big picture economic development, there are initiatives that are pursued by the businesses but also are pursued by the city [to make that happen], but a lot of policy change would need to be done.”

It’s Carnaval Time

BY B E T H D ’A D D O N O

Find birria tacos and Mexican dishes at Carnaval Lounge THERE’S SOMETHING NEW COOKING

at Carnaval Lounge.

The back kitchen at the popular St. Claude Avenue music spot has swapped out Brazilian fare for tacos, and not just any tacos. Chef Michael Nguyen is cooking crazy good birria, the popular taco-meets-French-dip specialty with roots in the state of Jalisco, Mexico.

His version is worth celebrating for sure — juicy, slow-cooked beef, tender as butter and spiced with dried guajillo and ancho chiles for flavor, not heat. The oily, juicy specialty is offered in tacos or burritos and in quesadillas served with cheese, rice and beans, cilantro and jalapeno crema.

As tradition dictates, all come with a side of the fragrant jus for dipping or drizzling. There’s also a chicken version, and for vegetarians one with jackfruit, a fruit with a slightly sweet, nutty flavor and a toothsome texture akin to shredded meat.

Nguyen first had birria tacos while traveling and realized there weren’t a lot of options in New Orleans for the tacos, which have become popular in cities including Los Angeles, San Antonio and Houston. Birria tacos are all over social media: A quick check on Instagram turns up more than 300,000 #birria posts, with more than 115,000 birria-based videos running on TikTok. Nguyen started playing with recipes and popping up for friends and family out of his former home on Music Street in St. Roch.

Nguyen, 31, is the first generation of his family to be born and raised in the U.S. He grew up on the West Bank eating his mom’s Vietnamese cooking, and he worked for 15 years

in the hospitality business at restaurants that serve Cajun, Mexican and Italian fare.

“I grew up working on my dad’s shrimp boat and working in restaurants since I was 16,” he says. “I like a fast-paced kind of job.”

Past restaurants where he’s worked from backand front-of-the-house jobs into management, include the Olive Branch Cafe and Velvet Cactus.

He was cooking at Velvet Cactus most recently and met Carnaval owners’ Matt and Jennifer Johnson.

“We knew we were going to reopen with a different kind of menu when we could safely reopen,” Jennifer Johnson says. The couple bought the former Siberia Lounge space and changed the concept to the Brazilianinspired Carnaval in September 2019. They reset the bar to reflect music, food and drinks from New Orleans and points south, which covers a lot of ground.

“Our manager was chef Mike’s neighbor and told us about his tacos, so we went to try them and fell in love with his food,” she says. “And it works with our concept.”

Nguyen — who goes by chef Mike Win on Facebook and Instagram — connected with the couple right away.

“His food is delicious, and he’s a great guy,” Johnson says. “We all just clicked.” Nguyen got the job, and when the Carnaval Lounge reopened on Memorial Day weekend, after being shuttered by the pandemic, Nguyen took over the club’s back kitchen. He’s under contract for a year and hopes to extend that indefinitely.

Although birria is the star of his compact menu, there’s more to savor, as well as occasional specials. Fried fish tacos are served with pico de gallo and chipotle-jalapeno crema, as are tacos filled with fried shrimp, fried crawfish and fried cauliflower.

Nguyen’s spin on grilled elote, the

PeeWee’s Crabcakes opens new location in New Orleans East EACH LOCATION FOR PEEWEE’S CRABCAKES shares the same

sprawling menu of modern Creole seafood, but these restaurants are not simply copies of each other.

Founder Charles “PeeWee” Armstrong tailors each to its particular neighborhood, while folding in lessons learned from the others.

That learning curve has been dramatic, as his third restaurant makes clear.

This latest PeeWee’s location, which opened Aug. 6, is in New Orleans East, in the Read Boulevard East neighborhood, along Chef Menteur Highway.

Up front, there’s a counter with a 20-foot-long steam table loaded with signature dishes ready to plate up, like seafood-stuffed potatoes, seafood pasta, stuffed crabs, stuffed fish and, of course, buttery-crisp crabcakes with spicy-sweet Asya sauce (named for Armstrong’s daughter).

The kitchen will prepare anything to order from the full menu, though P H OTO B Y C H E R Y L G E R B E R

Chef Mike Nguyen serves tacos and elote at Carnaval.

popular Mexico City street-food version of corn on the cob, comes with Cotija and a dusting of crushed Hot Cheetos and lime. There’s a queso burger with waffle fries, or the fries can be ordered nacho stye, topped with queso, jalapenos and green onions, with the option to add beef, chicken or jackfruit. There are also churros tossed in cinnamon sugar, fried to order and served with whipped cream and chocolate sauce.

The kitchen is open late – until at least 1 a.m. — which already is serving fans inside the club, as well as drawing musicians and service industry folks on their way home from work.

And Nguyen’s food is helping refuel the Marigny nightlife scene.

Carnaval Lounge reopens from a summer break on Friday, Aug. 13.

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WHAT

Carnaval Lounge

WHERE

2227 St. Claude Ave., (504) 265-8855; carnavallounge.com

WHEN

5 p.m.-1 a.m. Tue. & Thu.-Sun.

Email dining@gambitweekly.com

HOW

Dine-in

CHECK IT OUT

Birria and Mexican dishes at a Marigny music club

P H OTO B Y I A N M C N U LT Y / T H E T I M E S - P I C AY U N E

PeeWee’s Crabcakes is bringin’ its delicious grub to New Orleans East.

the counter is designed to furnish a quick meal in minutes.

“I want to feed everybody, I want to make this accessible for everybody,” Armstrong said.

PeeWee’s is painted a vivid shade of red, which to Armstrong symbolizes his “fire,” the drive and passion he puts into the restaurants.

That goes beyond the food, and it’s the reason why he chose New Orleans East.

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FINE ELECTRONIC CIGARETTES KRATOM • CBD 3137 CALHOUN ST. MON - SAT 11-7

•

504-309-4717

ADVERTISE WITH US Call Sandy Stein (504) 483-3150 or sstein@gambitweekly.com

While new restaurants have continued to open at a rapid clip across many parts of the city, a scarcity of such amenities has remained a persistent complaint from residents in the neighborhoods that comprise New Orleans East.

“As soon as I said I was going to the East, I heard people saying ‘PeeWee don’t do it,’ but that’s just the point,” Armstrong said.

“I believe in my community and I want to see it get better. You have to be part of that change. I think restaurants can be a positive change for their neighborhoods. I think they can contribute.”

— IAN McNULTY / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE

From Jerusalem to Metairie, this Palestinian family restaurant thrives on joy, tradition GREAT STACKS OF BEEF AND CHICKEN shawarma slowly twirl

All Back to School advertisers will receive a FREE feature about their business (one photo + 100 words) ISSUE DATE

AUGUST 17

CALL TODAY Ad Director Sandy Stein 504.483.3150 or sstein@gambitweekly.com

behind the counter at Kabob House while upbeat Arabic music whirls from a cell phone propped on a kitchen shelf.

Mazen Ceder is preparing another five-gallon batch of hummus, while his wife Maha checks on one pot full of stuffed grape leaves and another devoted to the day’s special, mansaf, a banquet-sized dish of lamb shanks with rice and a frothy, tangy yogurt gravy. Their son Jamal angles past with the first in a long stream of different desserts he’ll serve throughout the day.

“I need my family with me, and I have them all here,” Ceder said.

Kabob House opened without fanfare a year ago this month in Metairie, sharing a cramped, sometimes chaotic parking lot with a chain sandwich shop and a mattress store.

At a glance, you know it will handle the universal Middle Eastern standards — the falafel, gyros sandwiches and, of course, kabob plates.

But the true richness of this restaurant is in the regional flavors and traditions this Palestinian family has carried through generations and great distances.

Mazen worked different jobs since arriving in New Orleans in the 1990s, mostly in construction.

He was driving a taxi when he decided to start bringing batches of his own cooking to his fellow drivers waiting on fares at the airport.

“I would bring them my food and they’d ask what restaurant it was from,” he recalled. “They took

pictures of it. They wanted to know where they could get more.”

Thus encouraged, in 2015 he opened his first restaurant, Falafel King on Williams Boulevard, close to the airport terminal at that time.

Different specialties constantly cycle through the Kabob House counter up front, made one tray or pan at a time. It feels a little like a potluck.

Come early and you might get some msakhan, with chicken and onions rolled together in thin flatbread. There’s always a variety of manaqish, round breads topped with ground beef or toasty, earthy drifts of za’atar spice, singing with sumac and sesame.

Green beans, fried cauliflower, spicy potatoes cut like home fries and cooked down with garlic and parsley — the parade of food continues through the day.

Many of these changing dishes are desserts. There’s the classic baklava, but also another version rolled thin and coiled into circles for concentric layers of crunch.

“Desserts are special for people, especially when you are far from your home country,” Maha said. “It is like a taste from grandma.”

— IAN McNULTY / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE

Restaurants step up COVID-19 protections A GROWING LIST OF RESTAURANTS

in town are requiring dinners to either have proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID-19 test, joining an increasing number of bars and music venues with similar rules.

Restaurants requiring either proof of vaccination or a negative test include: • Cowbell • The Domino • Effervescence • La Boca • Lengua Madre • The New Orleans Vampire Cafe • Palm & Pine • Red Gravy • Saffron • Three Muses • Who Dat Coffee Cafe — GAMBIT STAFF | KATELYN UMHOLTZ AND IAN MCNULTY / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE

EAT+DRINK

WINE OF THE

WEEK

Neal Shulman and Liam Meier Co-founders, Brewsy AFTER GRADUATING FROM ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY, Neal Shulman

went into product development.

During the pandemic, he began working on a method to make wine and hard cider by adding yeast and other ingredients to juice. As he prepared to release his home-fermenting kit Brewsy last summer, he moved to New Orleans. He and business partner Liam Meier are now growing the business and developing an online network around Brewsy, which just added a mobile app for users to get instructions and tips and share recipes.

How did you get interested in DIY winemaking?

NEAL SHULMAN: Brewsy really started when COVID-19 started to make waves in the U.S. It actually happened where I was noticing a lot of trends, like the sourdough craze. I think everyone knows someone who was making sourdough bread. I looked at how much fun people were having with that and the community that was built around it.

I hadn’t tried homebrewing or making kombucha or fermenting anything in the past. But I noticed a high frequency of search volume after the beginning of Covid for how to make wine at home. All the restaurants were closed. There were all these trips to the grocery store, or trips to grab food or (having it) delivered. I wondered if there was some self-reliant way to make wine at home. I tried it, and it was really, really hard to figure out what to do. But the process itself isn’t terribly complicated. I thought maybe there’s a way to actually teach people to make wine better than it has been done before.

I ended up making thousands of bottles of wine over the summer. I made an account with these winery supply companies. They supply all the yeast and other materials you need to make wine by 10,000 gallons. I was ordering samples of all of these ingredients, breaking them down into tiny quantities and basically saying, ‘What if I did 4 grams of this and 10 grams of this?’

I did that over and over again for four months until I had a formula that I could give to anybody. That became the Brewsy Bag. The intention was to create a formula that you could pour into anything. The first juices I started with were apple juice to made hard cider, grape juice to see what it actually would taste like, and then cranberry juice. Generally, juices that are terribly acidic don’t end up tasting that good, because what’s happening in the fermentation is the yeast are eating all the sugar in the juice. Things like orange and pineapple juice aren’t as good as something that might taste better dry, like cranberry juice. Anyone who can read instructions on the back of a pasta box should be able do Brewsy just as well.

LIAM MEIER: We’re excited about the consumer choice you get when you’re making your own wine.

With Brewsy, people are choosing exactly how sweet or dry the wine is turning out, choosing the flavors in it. They’re choosing the ingredients, which is cool for someone like me who is vegan.

What was it like getting the business started?

S: I was lucky in that I had already developed skills that made it easier.

I already was a product designer.

I understood packaging and formulation. I was relatively fluent in creating websites, so it was easy to get that up.

Over (last) summer, everything was developed from the product to the website, and even the customer support channels were worked out in advance. From (the launch last year on) Aug. 14 onward, the mindset wasn’t necessarily launch, but ‘What do we do with this first welcome kit?’

Supplying glass to the customers was not something we launched

P H OTO P R OV I D E D B Y B R E W S Y

Neal Shulman and Liam Meier run Brewsy.

with, but we do now. We’re launching French oak chips to oak your wine. Essentially the idea was to expand the wine-making possibilities with Brewsy.

(With the welcome kit) you also get access to Club Brewsy, which is a Facebook group with just over 5,000 people who are making wine or hard cider with Brewsy. There are recipes, ideas, memes, trends, hundreds of posts about what people are doing with Brewsy. It comes with a ticket that looks like an event ticket to Club Brewsy.

What kind of person is attracted to Brewsy?

S: Because it’s a welcome kit, a lot of people into winemaking (professionally) don’t have a large need for Brewsy. What we do is walk you through the steps. We noticed that the people who love Brewsy the most are makers and people who have already been making their own kombucha or have already been making their own bread, or have a hobby and are looking for their next crafty hobby.

M: Club Brewsy on Facebook has shown so much potential when people are spending more time at home. In a time when people are looking at their phones and playing video games, the human connections are lost. We think hobbies are a beautiful way to build connection.

We’re building the physical products to support that and simultaneously the digital products.

S: There are so many hobbies that are a little bit lonely. We’ve added this fun social element to it.

— WILL COVIELLO For more information, see getbrewsy.com.

Erath Oregon Pinot Noir

Classic Oregon aromas of black cherry, plum and currant mingle with hints of anise and sandalwood. Flavors reflect the aromatics with more cherry and plum with a touch of graham.

Hearty and robust, yet smooth and approachable.

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Contact Will Coviello wcoviello@gambitweekly.com 504-483-3106 | FAX: 504-483-3159 C O M P L E T E L I S T I N G S AT W W W. B E S T O F N E W O R L E A N S . C O M Out 2 Eat is an index of Gambit contract advertisers.

Unless noted, addresses are in New Orleans and all accept credit cards. Updates: email willc@gambitweekly.com or call (504) 483-3106.

$ — average dinner entrée under $10 $$ — $11 to $20 $$$ — $21 or more

Notice: Due to COVID-19, dining at restaurants is impacted. Information is subject to change. Contact the restaurant to confirm service options.

is the namesake “nephew” who ran the kitchen at his late uncle Tony Angello’s restaurant. The Creole-Italian menu features dishes like veal, eggplant or chicken parmigiana, and Mama’s Eggplant with red gravy and Romano cheese. Reservations required. Dinner Tue.-Sat. $$ Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza — 2125 Veterans Memorial Blvd., Metairie, (504) 510-4282; theospizza.com — See Harahan/ Jefferson section for restaurant description. $ Short Stop Po-Boys — 119 Transcontinental Drive, Metairie, (504) 885-4572; shortstoppoboysno.com — The menu includes more than 30 po-boys along with other Louisiana staples. Fried Louisiana oysters and Gulf shrimp are served on a Leidenheimer loaf with lettuce, tomato, onions and pickles. No reservations. Breakfast, lunch and dinner Mon.-Sat. $

MID-CITY/TREME CARROLLTON Mid City Pizza — 6307 S. Miro St., (504) 509-6224; midcitypizza.com — See MidCity section for restaurant description.

Takeout and delivery available. Lunch Thu.Sun., dinner Thu.-Mon. $$ Mikimoto — 3301 S. Carrollton Ave., (504) 488-1881; mikimotosushi.com — The South Carrollton roll includes tuna tataki, avocado and snow crab. Takeout and delivery available. Lunch Sun.-Fri., dinner daily. $$ Pyramids Cafe — 3151 Calhoun St., (504) 861-9602 — Diners will find Mediterranean cuisine featuring such favorites as shawarma prepared on a rotisserie. Takeout and delivery available. Lunch and dinner daily. $$

CITYWIDE Breaux Mart — Citywide; breauxmart.com — The deli counter’s changing specials include dishes such as baked catfish and red beans and rice. Lunch and dinner daily. $

FAUBOURG MARIGNY Kebab — 2315 St. Claude Ave., (504) 3834328; kebabnola.com — The sandwich shop offers doner kebabs and Belgian fries.

A falafel sandwich comes with pickled cucumbers, arugula, spinach, red onions, beets, hummus and Spanish garlic sauce.

No reservations. Takeout and delivery available. Lunch and dinner Wed.-Mon. $

FRENCH QUARTER Desire Oyster Bar — Royal Sonesta New Orleans, 300 Bourbon St., (504) 586-0300; sonesta.com/desireoysterbar — The menu features Gulf seafood in traditional and contemporary Creole dishes, po-boys and more. Char-grilled oysters are topped with Parmesan, herbs and butter. Reservations recommended. Takeout available. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. $$

GENTILLY NOLA Crawfish King Seafood & Barbecue — 5321 Franklin Ave., (504) 571-5038 ; crawfishking.com — The restaurant specializes in boiled seafood and barbecue. The Gentilly Reuben features house-smoked brisket pastrami, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and house sauce on marbled rye. No reservations. Takeout and outdoor seating available. Lunch and early dinner Wed.Sun. $$

HARAHAN/JEFFERSON/ RIVER RIDGE The Rivershack Tavern — 3449 River Road, (504) 834-4938; therivershacktavern.com

— This bar and music spot offers a menu of burgers, sandwiches and changing lunch specials. Curbside pickup and delivery available. Lunch and dinner daily. $ Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza — 1212 S. Clearview Parkway, Elmwood, (504) 7333803; theospizza.com — There is a wide variety of specialty pies and toppings to build your own pizza. The menu also includes salads and sandwiches. Curbside pickup and delivery available. Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sat. $

LAKEVIEW The Blue Crab Restaurant and Oyster Bar — 7900 Lakeshore Drive, (504) 284-2898; thebluecrabnola.com — The menu includes sandwiches, fried seafood platters, boiled seafood and more. The Blue Crab platter has fried shrimp, oysters, catfish and crab claws and either fried stuffed crab or soft-shell crab. Outdoor seating available.

Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sun. $$ Lakeview Brew Coffee Cafe — 5606 Canal Blvd., (504) 483-7001; lakeviewbrew.com — This casual cafe offers coffee, pastries, desserts, sandwiches and salads. Tuna salad or chicken salad avocado melts are topped with Monterey Jack and Parmesan.

Takeout, curbside pickup and delivery are available. Breakfast and lunch daily. $

METAIRIE Andrea’s Restaurant — 3100 N. 19th St., Metairie, (504) 834-8583; andreasrestaurant.com — Chef Andrea Apuzzo’s speckled trout royale is topped with crabmeat and lemon-cream sauce. Capelli D’Andrea combines house-made angel hair pasta and smoked salmon in cream sauce. Curbside pickup and delivery available. Lunch and dinner daily, brunch Sun. $$$ Chef Ron’s Gumbo Stop — 2309 N. Causeway Blvd., Metairie, (504) 835-2022; gumbostop.com — The Seafood Platter comes with fried catfish, shrimp, oysters and crab balls and is accompanied by fries and choice of side. Delivery available.

Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sat. $$ Kosher Cajun New York Deli & Grocery — 3519 Severn Ave., Metairie, (504) 888-2010; koshercajun.com — This New York-style deli specializes in sandwiches, including corned beef and pastrami that come from the Bronx. Takeout available. Lunch Sun.Thu., dinner Mon.-Thu. $ Mark Twain’s Pizza Landing — 2035 Metairie Road, Metairie, (504) 832-8032; marktwainpizza.com — Mark Twain’s serves salads, po-boys and pies like the Italian pizza with salami, tomato, artichoke, sausage and basil. Takeout and curbside pickup are available. Lunch Tue.-Sat., dinner Tue.-Sun. $ Nephew’s Ristorante — 4445 W. Metairie Ave., Metairie, (504) 533-9998; nephewsristorante.com — Chef Frank Catalanotto

Angelo Brocato’s — 214 N. Carrollton Ave., (504) 486-1465; angelobrocatoicecream. com — This sweet shop serves its own gelato, spumoni, Italian ice, cannolis, fig cookies and other treats. Window and curbside pickup. Lunch and dinner Tue.Sun. $ Brown Butter Southern Kitchen & Bar — 231 N. Carrollton Ave., Suite C, (504) 6093871; brownbutterrestaurant.com — Sample items include smoked brisket served with smoked apple barbecue sauce, smoked heirloom beans and vinegar slaw. A Brunch burger features a brisket and short rib patty topped with bacon, brie, a fried egg, onion jam and arugula on a brioche bun. Dine-in, takeout, curbside pickup and delivery available. Lunch and dinner Wed.Sat., brunch Sat.-Sun. $$ Katie’s Restaurant — 3701 Iberville St., (504) 488-6582; katiesinmidcity.com — Favorites include the Cajun Cuban with roasted pork, grilled ham, cheese and pickles pressed on buttered bread. The Boudreaux pizza is topped with cochon de lait, spinach, red onions, roasted garlic and scallions. Takeout, curbside pickup and delivery available. Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sun. $$ Mid City Pizza — 4400 Banks St., (504) 483-8609; midcitypizza.com — The neighborhood pizza joint serves New York-style pies, plus calzones, sandwiches and salads.

Signature shrimp remoulade pizza includes spinach, red onion, garlic, basil and green onion on an garlic-olive oil brushed crust.

Dine-in, takeout and delivery available.

Lunch Thu.-Sun., dinner Thu.-Mon. $$ Neyow’s Creole Cafe — 3332 Bienville St., (504) 827-5474; neyows.com — The menu includes New Orleans favorites such as red beans with fried chicken or pork chops, as well as grilled or fried seafood plates, po-boys, raw or char-grilled oysters, pasta, salads and more. Dine-in and takeout available. Lunch daily, dinner Mon.-Sat., brunch Sun. $$ Nonna Mia — 3125 Esplanade Ave., (504) 948-1717; nonnamianola.com — A Divine Portobello appetizer features chicken breast, spinach in red pepper sauce and crostini. The menu includes salads, sandwiches, pasta, pizza and more. Curbside pickup and delivery are available. Dinner Tue.-Sun. $$ Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza — 4024 Canal St., (504) 302-1133; theospizza.com — See Harahan/Jefferson section for restaurant description. $

NORTHSHORE Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza — 70488 Highway 21, Covington, (985) 234-9420; theospizza.com — See Harahan/Jefferson section for restaurant description. $

UPTOWN CR Coffee Shop — 3618 Magazine St., (504) 354-9422; crcoffeenola.com — The selection includes Coast Roast coffees made with beans roasted in antique roasters, and the sweet vanilla cream cold brew is a signature item. There also are pastries and snacks. Indoor and outdoor seating, online ordering and delivery available. Open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. $ Joey K’s — 3001 Magazine St., (504) 8910997; joeyksrestaurant.com — ­ The menu includes fried seafood platters, salads, sandwiches and red beans and rice. Sauteed trout Tchoupitoulas is topped with shrimp and crabmeat and served with vegetables and potatoes. Takeout and delivery available. Lunch and dinner Mon.Sat., brunch Sun. $$ Red Gravy — 4206 Magazine St., (504) 561-8844; redgravycafe.com — Thin cannoli pancakes are filled with cannoli cream and topped with chocolate. The menu includes brunch items, pasta dishes, sandwiches, baked goods and more. Takeout available. $$ Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza — 4218 Magazine St., (504) 894-8554; theospizza. com — See Harahan/Jefferson section for restaurant description. $ Tito’s Ceviche & Pisco — 5015 Magazine St., (504) 267-7612; titoscevichepisco.com — The Peruvian menu includes a version of the traditional dish lomo saltado, featuring beef tenderloin tips sauteed with onions, tomatoes, cilantro, soy sauce and pisco, and served with fried potatoes and rice.

Dine-in, outdoor seating and delivery available. Lunch and dinner Mon.-Sat., brunch Sun. $$$

WAREHOUSE DISTRICT Annunciation — 1016 Annunciation St., (504) 568-0245; annunciationrestaurant. com — The menu highlights Gulf seafood in Creole, Cajun and Southern dishes. Fried oysters and skewered bacon are served with meuniere sauce and toasted French bread. Reservations required. Dinner Thu.Sun. $$$ NOLA Caye — 898 Baronne St., (504) 302-1302; nolacaye.com — The menu features Caribbean-inspired dishes and Gulf seafood. Seared ahi tuna is served with mango, avocado, mixed greens, citrus vinaigrette and sesame seeds. Takeout, delivery and outdoor seating available. D daily, brunch Sat.-Sun. $$$

WEST BANK Asia — Boomtown Casino & Hotel, 4132 Peters Road, Harvey, (504) 364- 8812; boomtownneworleans.com — Restaurateur Tri La’s menu serves Chinese and Vietnamese dishes. The Lau Hot Pot for two comes with choice of scallops, snow crab or shrimp. Reservations accepted. Dinner Fri.-Sun. $$ Mosca’s — 4137 Highway 90 West, Westwego, (504) 436-8950; moscasrestaurant.com — This family-style eatery serves shrimp Mosca, chicken a la grande and baked oysters Mosca, made with breadcrumbs and Italian seasonings. Curbside pickup available. Dinner Wed.-Sat. Cash only. $$$ Specialty Italian Bistro — 2330 Belle Chasse Hwy., Gretna, (504) 391-1090; specialtyitalianbistro.com — The menu combines Old World Italian favorites and pizza.

Paneed chicken piccata is topped with lemon-caper piccata sauce served with angel hair pasta, salad and garlic cheese bread. Takeout and delivery available.

Lunch and dinner daily. $$

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MUSIC

BY KEITH SPERA IF YOU PERFORM, ENJOY OR PROMOTE live music in

New Orleans, the past week has been disconcerting.

Disconcerting in an all too familiar way.

The fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic, in addition to its many other dangers and disruptions, has again made the immediate future of live music uncertain.

Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro and the Maple Leaf Bar, two of New Orleans’ most cherished music venues, canceled at least two weeks of performances after employees tested positive for COVID-19.

City Park called off its entire “Thursdays at Twilight” fall concert series in the Botanical Garden because of the surging number of infections from the highly contagious delta variant. Comedian Todd Barry’s shows on Aug. 12 and Aug. 13 at the Dragon’s Den have been canceled. It’s Good Comedy is looking to reschedule those dates, promoter Vincent Zambon said.

And Faubourg Brewery, which had moved its summertime performances indoors, has called off all shows in August, hoping to restart the music on an outdoor stage after Labor Day. Each cancellation means lost income for musicians and the venues that support them. Covid’s tsunami of a fourth wave hit as they were finally clawing their way back to some semblance of normalcy after a yearlong shutdown.

Already New Orleans and Louisiana have reinstated indoor mask mandates. If the number of infections and hospitalizations don’t go down, more drastic measures may be coming.

Snug Harbor revealed July 24 that an employee had tested positive for COVID-19. That night’s show was canceled.

After a sanitizing, Snug Harbor reopened July 30. A second employee then tested positive on Aug. 1, prompting the club to close for two weeks, at least.

“Due to the current state of the pandemic, we feel we are unable to keep staff and patrons safe at this time,” read a post on Snug’s Facebook page.

“For the safety of everyone and their families, we will be closed through at least Aug. 14. Please check

%! ! & ! #!

P H OTO BY DAV I D G R U N F E L D / T H E T I M E S - P I C AY U N E

Musicians performing at Snug Harbor.

back for updates and stay safe.”

Music is currently scheduled to resume at Snug Harbor on Aug. 19 with pianist Oscar Rossignoli — who, ironically enough, recently revealed that he has COVID, with mild symptoms.

The Snug Harbor hiatus comes on the heels of Tipitina’s, the Maple Leaf Bar and d.b.a. mandating that all attendees show either proof of a COVID vaccination or a negative test from the previous 72 hours.

That policy went into effect July 30.

The next day, the Maple Leaf learned that one of its vaccinated bartenders had tested positive for COVID. The bartender last worked at the Leaf on July 23, “one day prior to their presumed exposure,” said a post on the Maple Leaf’s Facebook page.

“No other employees have tested positive, with several testing negative in the past 48 hours. We’re thankful none of our patrons have reported exposure or symptoms but felt we should let everyone know.”

The Maple Leaf is slated to remain dark until Aug. 16, when bassist George Porter Jr. is scheduled to play two sets.

Many music clubs are forging ahead, fingers crossed, with their own protocols and the government-issued mask mandate.

As of this writing, the Fillmore New Orleans still planned to host punk band Rise Against on Aug. 10 for the venue’s first big rock show since the start of the pandemic.

The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra intends to reopen its Central City concert venue, the New Orleans Jazz Market, with an event at 4 p.m. on Aug. 11.

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

MUSIC LINEUP

FRIDAY

4:30 Abita Blues Band 5:30 The Chitlins 7:00 Big Al and the Heavyweights 9:00 Kenny Neal

PAGE 5

Mar, Luna Orleans and Vivacious Miss Audacious. An art market is highlighted by custom culture vendors.

Admission is $10. Doors open at noon Saturday, Aug. 14, at Royal Brewery in New Orleans East. Find information at facebook.com/royalbrewery.

‘Ramadan Ramsey’

SATURDAY

SEPT. 24–25, 2021 CASSIDY PARK BOGALUSA, LA www.bogalusablues.com

1:00 Looka Here 3:30 Laurie Morvan Band 5:30 Walter “Wolfman” Washington 7:00 Jonathan Boogie Long 9:00 Eric Gales

www.louisianatravel.com

2021 Festival Tickets and Camping Now Available at www.bogalusablues.com/tickets | Children 10 and under are free!

The Bogalusa Blues & Heritage Festival is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. All donations are tax-deductible

PIPES CBD VAPES DETOX KRATOM

WE HAVE

CBD

FLOWER

LOUIS EDWARDS, a writer and chief creative officer of Festival Productions, which produces Jazz Fest, releases his fourth novel, “Ramadan Ramsey,” Tuesday, Aug. 10, with a reception at Garden District Book Shop. Edwards is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Whiting Award. The new book follows a New Orleans boy whose birth connects two disparate families.

Edwards will discuss the book and refreshments will be served. Admission is $33-$43 and includes a copy of the book. Find tickets on eventbrite.com.

Mini Comic Con THE JEFFERSON PARISH LIBRARY HOSTS A COMIC CON FOR KIDS AND TEENS. There are drawing and cartooning workshops, a superhero training academy for kids, a Marvel movie scavenger hunt, crafts, a photo booth, face painting and trivia.

Admission is free and costumes are encouraged. The event is from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 14, at the East Bank Regional Library at 4747 W. Napoleon Ave. in Metairie. Contact the library for information.

Dirty Dozen Brass Band THE DIRTY DOZEN BRASS BAND hits Frenchmen Street at 10 p.m.

Saturday, Aug. 14, for a show at d.b.a.

Tickets are $25 on eventbrite.com.

Books for Brews FAUBOURG BREWERY AND ONE BOOK ONE NEW ORLEANS host a book drive for Louisiana Books 2 Prisoners. Donate paperback sci-fi and fantasy books to receive free beer (hard-cover books are not accepted). Drop off is 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 15, at Faubourg Brewery. Visit facebook.com/onebookoneneworleans for details.

LeTrainiump

THANKS FOR VOTING US

BEST SMOKE SHOP

PLEASE VISIT

POP MUSICIAN LETRAINIUMP HAS ALREADY HAD AN EXCITING YEAR, with a shoutout from NPR Music’s “Desk of the Day” — and from the Wendy’s Twitter account — the release of several magnetic singles and a feature on the GLBL WRMNG debut release. He keeps the suave streak going on Friday, Aug. 13, with a show celebrating the release of his new EP, “Purity.” Synth-rock band People Museum will also perform and hip-hop duo SaxKixAve and dance DJ and art-

ist Lady Lavendar will join LeTrainiump on a few songs. The show starts at 8 p.m. at Howlin’ Wolf. Proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test is required. Tickets are $15 advance at eventbrite.com and $20 at the door.

Down SLUDGE HEAVYHITTERS DOWN WILL MARK FRIDAY THE 13TH with an all-too-rare hometown show at The Fillmore. Last year, the band — Philip H. Anselmo, Pepper Kennan, Kirk Windstein, Jimmy Bower and Pat Bruders — was confined to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its debut album, “NOLA,” with a livestreaming concert from Fish Pot Studios, so expect Down to exorcise a few demons when it’s finally back on stage. Comedian Dave Hill will open.

The show will also be livestreamed on the band’s website. Tickets are $35 in-person and $13 for the livestream at down-nola.com.

BrickUniverse EVERYONE LOVES BUILDING SOMETHING WITH LEGO BRICKS, from mismatched colorful towers we try to pass off as skyscrapers to impressively detailed fantasy landscapes. The BrickUniverse LEGO Fan Expo celebrates all of the creations we can come up with. The traveling fan festival will be back at Kenner’s Pontchartrain Convention & Civic Center on Saturday, Aug. 14, and Sunday, Aug. 15, with LEGO artist meet-andgreets and vendors selling specialized merchandise and mini-figures. But you know everyone wants to see the massive LEGO creations, like a recreation of Tiana’s Palace from “The Princess and the Frog,” a Quidditch scene from “Harry Potter,” the lava-drenched Mustafar from “Star Wars,” and a gallery of NASA-themed builds.

Admission to BrickUniverse will be by time-slot throughout the day to help with capacity limits. Tickets are $14.99 at brickuniverse.com/neworleans.

Juno Dunes JUNO DUNES PLAYS WHAT THE YOUTHS CALL “LOFT POP” but if that means nothing to you, picture sitting on the beach with a pina colada in hand, swaying from your lounge chair because face it, you’re not getting up until you absolutely have to. The band’s Spotify photo is the singer holding up two halves of a cantaloupe on either side of his head, and it just … makes sense. The band takes the stage for a residency at Portside Lounge on Friday, Aug. 13. Indie rock band Tiny Dinosaur will also perform. Proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test is required.

For more information, visit facebook. com/PortsideNOLA.

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MUSIC To l e a r n m o r e a b o u t a d d i n g y o u r e v e n t t o t h e m u s i c c a l e n d a r, p l e a s e e m a i l l i s t i n g s e d i t @ g a m b i t w e e k l y. c o m Note: Due to COVID-19, events may have certain restrictions or may be postponed; we recommend checking out a venues social media sites or call before you go for the most up to dateinformation.

TUESDAY 10 BAMBOULAS — Hannah Mignano Quartet, 12 pm; ; The Villains, 3 pm; Smoky Greenwell Blues, 6:30 pm; Chance Bushman & Rhythm Stompers, 10 pm DOS JEFES — Tom Hook, Wendell Brunious, 8:30 pm FILLMORE NEW ORLEANS — Rise Against , 6:30 pm SANTOS — The Skull, 8 pm SIDNEY'S SALOON — Steve Detroy, 8 pm; Steve Detroy, 8 pm THE SPOTTED CAT MUSIC CLUB — Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns, 6:30 pm; Smoking Time Jazz Club, 9:30 pm

WEDNESDAY 11 BAMBOULAS — Eight Dice Cloth, 12 pm; Fully Dressed Po’Boys, 3 pm; Bamboulas Hot Jazz Quartet, 6:30 pm; The Pentones, 10 pm DOS JEFES — Kris Tokarski, 8:30 pm GASA GASA — Astro James, King Clam, Josh Kagler, 9 pm LONGUE VUE HOUSE AND GARDENS — New Orleans High Society, 5 pm ROCK 'N' BOWL — Ryan Foret & Foret Tradition, 7:30 pm SANTOS — Russell Welch Swamp Moves Trio, 9 pm; Weedeater, Joe Buck Yourself, Adam Faucett, Cikada, 8 pm THE HOWLIN' WOLF — Naughty Professor Wednesday Shredder Sessions, 7:30 pm THE JAZZ PLAYHOUSE — Funkin' It Up with Big Sam, 7:30 pm THE SPOTTED CAT MUSIC CLUB — Shotgun Jazz Band, 6:30 pm; Antoine Diel and the New Orleans Misfit Power, 9:30 pm

THURSDAY 12 BAMBOULAS — Christopher Johnson Jazz, 3 pm; Andy J. Forest, 12 pm; Marty Peters & the Party Meters, 6:30 pm; Tree House Band, 10 pm BUFFA'S — Tom McDermott and Meschiya Lake, 7 pm; Tom McDermott and Meschiya Lake, 9 pm DOS JEFES — The Mark Coleman Trio, 8:30 pm GASA GASA — The Rotten Cores, 9 pm NOLA BREWING TAPROOM — Electric Yat Quartet presents “Name that Tune”, 6 pm PAVILION OF THE TWO SISTERS — James Rivers, 6 pm ROCK 'N' BOWL — Geno Delafose & French Rockin' Boogie, 8 pm SANTOS — Real Cool Trash, 9 pm THE JAZZ PLAYHOUSE — Brass-AHolics, 7:30 pm THE MAISON RESTAURANT AND MUSIC CLUB — NOLA Rug Cutters Jazz Band, 7 pm; Dysfunktional Bone, 10 pm THE SPOTTED CAT MUSIC CLUB — Jumbo Shrimp Jazz Band, 9:30 pm

FRIDAY 13 BAMBOULAS — Sabertooth Swing, 11 am; The Villains, 2 pm; Les Getrex N Creole Cooking, 6:30 pm; City of Trees, 10 pm BOURREE — Sasha Salk, 6 pm BUFFA'S — The Colgate Collective, 7 and 9 pm CARNAVAL LOUNGE — Katie Cat and Cain, 6 pm DOS JEFES — Tom Fitzpatrick & Turning Point, 9 pm GASA GASA — Gooseteeth with The Noise Complaints, 8 pm GENERATIONS HALL — Dependence Day "Show of Love", 7 pm JAZZ @ THE BLUE DOG — Luther Kent, 8 pm NOLA BREWING TAPROOM — Marc Stone, 5 pm ROCK 'N' BOWL — Bucktown Allstars, 8:30 pm SANTOS — Hidden Charms, 9 pm THE HOWLIN' WOLF — Letrainiump EP Release Show, 8 pm THE JAZZ PLAYHOUSE — Burlesque Ballroom feat. Romy Kaye, 7 pm; Burlesque Ballroom feat. Romy Kaye, 9 pm THE SPOTTED CAT MUSIC CLUB — Washboard Chaz Blues Trio, 5 pm; New Orleans Cottonmouth Kings, 8 pm TIPITINA'S — Honey Island Swamp Band + The Get Together, 10 pm WINDSOR COURT HOTEL — Robin Barnes, Songbird of New Orleans, 8:30 pm

SATURDAY 14 BAMBOULAS — Hot Club of Mazant, 11 am; G & The Swinging Gypsies, 2 pm; Johnny Mastro Blues, 6:30 pm; Crawdaddy T’s Cajun/Zydeo Review, 10 pm BOURREE — John Wolfe Blues Band, 6 pm; Jeff Krause, 1 pm BUFFA'S — Warren Battiste, 11 am; Freddie Blue and the Friendship Circle, 7 and 9 pm CARNAVAL LOUNGE — Jamie Vessels Band, 6 pm; Whisper Party/Duane Bartels Band/Boogie N The Boyz, 9 pm DOS JEFES — The Betty Shirley Band, 9 pm GASA GASA — L.Y.O.N., 8 pm JAZZ @ THE BLUE DOG — Luther Kent, 8 pm JEFFERSON PERFORMING ARTS CENTER — Pink Floyd Laser Spectacular, 7:30 pm NOLA BREWING TAPROOM — The Riverbenders, 5 pm PARADIGM GARDENS — Fermin Ceballos, 6 pm PIROGUE’S WHISKEY BAYOU — Little Freddie King, 8 pm ROCK 'N' BOWL — The Boogie Men, 8:30 pm SOUTHPORT HALL LIVE MUSIC & PARTY HALL — Gradu- Main Room, 8 pm THE HOWLIN' WOLF — Big Sam's Funky Nation, 9:30 pm THE JAZZ PLAYHOUSE — Sierra Green, 7:30 pm TIPITINA'S — Big Chief Bo Dollis Jr. & The Wild Magnolias, 9 pm

P H OTO B Y E L I OT K A M E N I T Z / T H E T I M E S - P I C AY U N E

Washboard Chaz WINDSOR COURT HOTEL — Robin Barnes, Songbird of New Orleans, 8:30 pm

SUNDAY 15 BAMBOULAS — Hannah Mignano Quar tet, 11 am; NOLA Ragweeds Jazz, 2 pm; Chance Bushman & Rhythm Stompers, 6:30 pm; Ed Wills Blues 4 Sale, 10 pm BEAUREGARD-KEYES HOUSE — A Salute to Great New Orleans Clarinetists with Tim Laughlin, 6 pm BOURREE — Orphaned in Storyville, 2 pm BUFFA'S — Sam Cammarata, 7 pm; Some Like It Hot, 11 am and 1pm; Sam Cammarata, 9 pm DOS JEFES — Tangiers Combo, 8 pm GASA GASA — Michah McKee, 8 pm NOLA BREWING TAPROOM — Brewgrass Sundays, 4 pm ROCK 'N' BOWL — Paul Varisco & the Milestones, 4:30 pm SOUTHPORT HALL LIVE MUSIC & PARTY HALL — The Dude Ranch (Blink 182) v The Great Heights Band (Weezer) - NO Advisory, 3 pm THE CHLOE — John Rankin, 11:30 am THE HOWLIN' WOLF — Hot 8 Brass Band, 8:30 pm THE SPOTTED CAT MUSIC CLUB — The New Orleans Songbird Robin Barnes + Fiya Birds, 6 pm; Pat Casey and the New Sound, 9 pm TIPITINA'S — Fais Do Do With Bruce Daigrepont Cajun Band, 5:15 pm VIRTUAL EVENT — Anaïs St. John and Harry Mayronne, 4 pm MONDAY 16 BUFFA'S — Suzanne Ortner Trio, 7 and 9 pm CARNAVAL LOUNGE — DJ Broken Fridge + Horns, 9 pm DOS JEFES — John Fohl, 8:30 pm;bo Shrimp Jazz Band, 9:30 pm THE HOWLIN' WOLF — Letrainiump EP Release Show, 8 pm THE JAZZ PLAYHOUSE — Burlesque Ballroom feat. Romy Kaye, 7 pm; Burlesque Ballroom feat. Romy Kaye, 9 pm THE SPOTTED CAT MUSIC CLUB — Washboard Chaz Blues Trio, 5 pm; New Orleans Cottonmouth Kings, 8 pm TIPITINA'S — Honey Island Swamp Band + The Get Together, 10 pm WINDSOR COURT HOTEL — Robin Barnes, Songbird of New Orleans, 8:30 pm

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ington, D.C., in 1988.

Alvin Ailey’s company performed excerpts from his 1960 piece “Revelations,” one of his most popular works, for an audience including President Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan. Ailey was there to receive the Kennedy Center Honor for his contribution to American culture.

Those scenes illustrate the heights of his achievements and fame, but Jamila Wignot’s documentary is a more poetic portrait, and much of it is about how Ailey coped with his success.

The documentary has footage of performances of some of Ailey’s landmark works over the years, including different performances of several. “Revelations” was inspired by memories of growing up in a Baptist church in the South. It has a joyous feel, and women in flowing full-length dresses and wide-brimmed hats illustrate its grace and fluid movement. There’s also the more sensuous and seductive work of “Blues Suite,” which was inspired by blues and other music of his youth. The piece helped cement Ailey as a premier choreographer around the time of the founding of his company, Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, in 1958.

While the film connects some important dates and phases of his life, it’s spare on details. Ailey was born into poverty in rural Texas during the Great Depression and his father abandoned him at three months old.

His mother worked in cotton fields and did domestic labor to support them in Texas in the 1930s. There’s no explanation of the years between then and when he moved to California at age 12. There he discovered theater and dance, and the film soon jumps to his arrival in New York, where he worked with top modern choreographers.

Wignot notes some of Ailey’s milestone works, including “Mary Lou’s Mass,” “Love Songs” and “Night Creature.” But she spends more time on a few that reflected deeply emotional moments in his life, including the ballet “Memoria,” created after the death of his friend Joyce Trisler, and “Cry,” a work about Black women dedicated to his mother. “Cry” was created to star company dancer Judith Jamison, who he chose to succeed him as artistic director before his death in 1989.

P H OTO P R OV I D E D B Y N E O N

The new documentary ‘Ailey’ follows the life and career of choreographer Alvin Ailey.

Many insights come from dancers in his company and others who worked for him, particularly Jamison. Ailey quickly recognized the talents of dancer and choreographer Bill T. Jones, who collaborated with the company.

Jones says that Ailey felt increasingly isolated by his own fame and a public image he had to live up to.

Ailey picked up on double standards. The U.S. State Department sent his company on international tours, but in tours across the country in the 1960s, his racially integrated troupe wasn’t allowed to stay at many hotels. He was outraged by the murder of Black Panther Fred Hampton, which influenced the work “Masekela Language.”

Ailey was also private about his personal life, particularly romantic partners until relatively later in his life.

It’s not covered in the film, but when he died of an AIDs-related illness, he didn’t want his mother to hear it described as such because of the stigma it carried in the late 1980s.

The film edits in more recent behind-the-scenes footage of the creation of a tribute to Ailey to mark the company’s 60th anniversary.

While that adds contemporary movement, it reveals little about him and seems superfluous.

At 82 minutes, the documentary flies by. It’s hard not to feel that there must be more insightful material from Ailey himself, given his early fame and large body of work. But it is an empathetic portrait of a man who infused his choreography with emotion but spent much of his legendary career off stage.

“Ailey” screens at Prytania Theaters at Canal Place.

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INTER-PLANETARY

By Frank A. Longo

66 Making haste 67 Aid in diagnosing an injured meniscus 71 In dreamland 74 Dragon killer, say 75 Some pudding bases 79 “Hamilton” duet sung

by Burr and Hamilton to their children 83 Literary alias 84 Big cat’s lair 85 Beet or turnip 86 “I don’t give —!”

88 Olympic runner Sebastian 89 Ghosts 93 Paul Lynde’s role on “Bewitched”

97 What a dipstick is dipped into 98 Faux — 100 Diner patrons choosing dishes 101 Danger of atomic weapons 108 Drink mixer 109 Just slightly 110 Trembled 111 Victory sign 113 “Au —” (“So long for now”) 117 Wedding party 119 Tolkien’s imaginary world (that hints at this puzzle’s theme) 121 Rear-end or sideswipe 122 Hit of the past 123 Prefix with fiche 124 Quality of a dirty chimney 125 Howled wolfishly 126 Does in, as a dragon DOWN 1 Jetway locale 2 Plow pullers 3 “Diary of — Housewife” 4 Careful reader 5 Race joiner 6 Bruin Bobby 7 Pigeon calls 8 Sits next to 9 Helpful boost 10 Oar wood 11 NPR journalist Daniel 12 Depend on 13 Cattle home 14 Congest with fluid 15 Kin of reggae 16 Prints messily 17 Savoir- — 18 Onetime TWA rival 19 Gives temporarily 24 “— -Ho” (“Snow White” song) 28 Sheep call 31 Church tower 33 Archaic verb ending 34 Alliance of the W. Hemisphere 35 Clip, as wool 36 On — firma 37 Is furious 38 Possesses

42 Fond du —, Wisconsin 43 Up to, in ads 44 Med. exam involving a forearm jab 45 Sneaky laugh 46 Et — (and others, in footnotes) 47 “Fist City” singer Loretta 48 Safecracker, slangily 51 Boxer Max 52 Guthrie of folk 55 “Angel” actress Amy 56 French artist Édouard 57 First Hebrew letter 59 Set of values 60 “Would that it were true!”

61 — the bud (forestall) 62 Single out as especially important 64 Boorish types 68 Make over 69 Race pace 70 Ones outdoing all rivals, informally 71 Appends 72 Flow slowly 73 Race space 76 Secret stash 77 Love, to Celine 78 Foretellers

80 Botch it up 81 Bond creator Fleming 82 Circle portion 87 Nobel-winning U.N. agcy.

90 Most frigid 91 Put a knot in 92 Skin protein 93 Draw upon 94 Venerate 95 Makes good 96 Hard work 98 Players of LPs and 45s 99 Noah’s boat 101 DEA agents 102 In — (not yet born) 103 Tree that’s a chocolate source 104 Mannheim’s river 105 Horn sounds 106 Home to St. Teresa 107 Soft toy bear 112 Emmy winner Falco 114 Bicolor whale 115 Possible response to “Good job!”

116 Greek consonants 118 Greek consonant 119 Rowdy crowd 120 Conducted

ANSWERS FOR LAST ISSUE’S PUZZLE: P 2

PUZZLES

32 Tools facilitating weapon-launching 35 Asset of Hercules and Samson 39 Road coating 40 Young miss 41 Aerobic exercise promotes it 44 Greek region 49 Work unit, in physics 50 Morales of “La Bamba” 51 Infant 53 Drain cleaner 54 Hiker’s printed guide 58 Result of a lucid mind 63 Like scalawags 65 Prefix with commuting

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